Taylor Roades (b. 1990) is a Canadian documentary photographer based in Victoria, British Columbia. Her work is grounded in place and the natural sciences, exploring our connection to land, culture, climate and the environment.






































































  
         





             02.Saving the Arctic Sea Ice 

Photographed: February 2025
Location: Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, CA
Environment and Climate

Published: Scientific American, June 2025
Writer: Alec Luhn
Winner: 2026 Covering Climate Now, Solutions Category 

Researchers are trying to rebuild the sea-ice around the arctic circle to reflect the warming rays, and slow the effects of climate change in the arctic. 2025 was the mildest winter the Arctic has seen in 75 years. The sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean was at its smallest extent on record. Scientists predict that within the next 15 years this ice cap will disappear in summer for the first time in millennia, accelerating global warming.

Sea ice freezes from below. Once the first layer forms, it insulates the seawater from the air, which can be 50 degrees Celsius colder. The thicker the ice gets, the slower it grows. 

Because snow is a better insulator than ice—this quality is why igloos work so well—flooding and freezing the snow could allow more cold to penetrate to the ice’s underside, creating more ice.

And so flooding the top layer of sea ice and allowing the freezing temperatures do the rest is what Real Ice is doing. This geoengineering work is mimicking earth’s natural processes, and it is showing promising results.

Please click on the image for captions.
Sea water is pumped from below the ice onto the surface of the arctic ocean. This water will form a reflective layer of ice on top of the accumulated snow.
The Arctic Ocean frozen beneath a think layer of sea ice en-route to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut Canada.
Albert Van Wijngaarden - PhD candidate at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge. A volunteer member of Real Ice, his research focuses on the social and ethical questions that arise alongside attempts to study ideas to artificially intervene in elements of the climate system in the Polar regions.
Simon Woods the co-founder of Real Ice takes snow depth measurements on the sea ice.  
Ice “flowers” form as water freezes on the surface of the sea ice. Water vapor in the air sublimates (changes directly from a gas to a solid) and deposits as ice crystals on the surface of the ice.
Dr. Brendan Kelly (center) is the Executive Director of the Study of Environmental Arctic Change and Professor of Marine Biology at the International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. He waits for the team to start up their snowmobiles and head out onto the sea ice. 
Bryan Kavanna, Real Ice Inuit guide and Real Ice team member 
Snow and Ice Mass Balance Array (SIMBA) measures vertical temperature profiles, and flow rates 24/7 through the air-snow-ice-water column using a chain. 

Data is being constantly collected and the device is protected from arctic foxes chewing the cords with fencing. 
Real Ice team members drill holes into the ice to place their pumps in four locations every morning. 
Inuit guide David Kavanna is out each day with the Real Ice team pulling pumps and drilling holes, watching for the team’s safety in extreme conditions.
CHARS Canadian High Arctic Research Station The Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) operated by Polar Knowledge Canada, has been designed and built to optimize innovation in Arctic science and technology, to welcome visitors, and to provide researchers with the accommodation and technical services they need. 
Cían Sherwin Co-founder & CEO of Real Ice drills into the depth of ice at a pumping location. Real Ice is test drilling  on a single square kilometer of sea ice outside of Cambridge Bay Nunavut.  
Real Ice team returns to CHARS at the end of the short arctic day by snowmobile. Each day they install the pumps in the morning and remove them every afternoon as they completely freeze up in arctic winter temperatures in a few hours.